Tag: tribulation

Convergence, The Last Days

The Handshake Web, Part I: The Emerging Architecture of Resilient Convergence

Rooted & Raised

From the Series: Countdown to Convergence

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Handshake Web, Part II: Coordination, Security, and the Human Variable

What appears to be developing is not one giant integrated machine where everybody gives up independence. It looks more like a network of semi-independent systems that increasingly require one another to keep functioning and growing. For example, recent challenges in global chip supply chains have shown how even tech giants rely on complex webs of manufacturing, logistics, and cross-border agreements to maintain production. The rapid adoption of cloud interoperability standards, such as those among major cloud providers to move workloads efficiently, is another illustration. In layman’s language, I would picture it this way: AI/AI-tech becomes an increasingly important engine. Around that engine grows an enormous support web supplying what it needs. The members of that web remain independent, but they increasingly build standardized ways to exchange resources, information, capacity, financing, and assistance. ​The basic scaffolding begins with AI tech and compute, which depend on electricity and energy infrastructure. That energy infrastructure is connected to chips, critical minerals, and manufacturing, which in turn depend upon communications networks, fiber, satellites, and emerging space infrastructure. These systems rely upon transportation, logistics, and supply chains, all of which require capital, banking, insurance, and government finance. Labor, engineering, construction, and other forms of human capital support the entire structure, while defense, cybersecurity, and physical security protect its operation. Governments, regulators, and international coordinating institutions increasingly interact with all of these layers.

None of these relationships is strictly linear; each layer increasingly depends upon and communicates with several others, creating the larger web. ​​But those arrows aren’t really vertical. Eventually they’re everywhere. Energy needs capital. Capital needs information. Information needs communications. Communications need chips. Chips need minerals. Minerals need energy and transportation. Transportation needs energy. Defense needs AI-tech. AI-tech needs space and terrestrial communications. Governments need all of them. That’s the web. At the center of this web is what I call the “handshake” mechanism: a formal or informal agreement, standard, or interface that allows different systems to cooperate, share resources, and depend on each other without giving up independence. And then comes the handshake mechanism. ​A handshake basically says, “I don’t have to own you in order to depend upon something you provide.” That’s enormously important. The United States doesn’t have to own a foreign mine. A hyperscaler doesn’t have to own every power plant supplying its data centers. An AI-tech company doesn’t have to own every chip fab. Japan doesn’t have to own America’s financial system to benefit from a financial backstop. A government doesn’t have to own a private space company to contract for launch capability. They create interfaces. Contracts are handshakes. Technical standards are handshakes. Trade agreements are handshakes. Currency arrangements are handshakes. Defense agreements are handshakes. Power-purchase agreements are handshakes.

Cloud interoperability is a handshake. Emergency assistance is a handshake. Shared infrastructure can be a handshake. And eventually the really important transition is likely to be from individual handshakes to systems of handshakes. ​That’s where the scaffolding starts looking mature. At the present stage, a need arises, an appropriate partner is identified, terms are negotiated, and a connection is established. In a more mature version of the web, a need would arise within an already established network, a compatible provider or alternative would be identified, and capacity could be connected, rerouted, or substituted rapidly—potentially with much of that process already standardized or automated. That’s the difference between having a bunch of extension cords lying around and having an electrical grid. That’s where diversification becomes central.

​Suppose Country A relies completely on Country B for something critical. That’s dependency, but it’s fragile. So Country A adds C and D. Now B fails, and C picks up some load while D supplies another portion. That’s redundancy. But for C and D to substitute effectively, they need compatible standards, logistics, financial arrangements, communications, contracts, infrastructure, etc. So strangely, attempts to reduce dependency on individual nodes can increase dependency on the larger network. That’s one of the most interesting things uncovered. Eventually the objective isn’t necessarily independence. It’s continuity. And once continuity becomes the objective, the system starts behaving differently. A node fails? Reroute. A country becomes unreliable? Substitute. A data center loses power? Shift workloads. A mineral source disappears? Activate another supplier. A financial system experiences stress? Liquidity/support mechanisms activate. A hurricane knocks something offline? Move capacity through another node while repairs occur. A geopolitical dispute breaks one handshake? Find another route through the web. That’s why a mature system can tolerate enormous amounts of disagreement without necessarily coming apart. ​Then humans have to manage the thing. This is the part I’ve spent so much time discovering.

Eventually, there are too many handshakes for everybody to coordinate everything independently. That’s where a tiered representative governance structure or a nested representative council system, where information and authority move both directions through it, becomes plausible. Not necessarily the architecture they’ll choose, but something functionally similar. Possible governance models to explore include intergovernmental organizations dedicated to infrastructure standards, public-private consortia for setting and enforcing cross-border protocols, federated oversight councils composed of sectoral and regional representatives, and adaptive policy levers such as incentive-based coordination frameworks or binding international agreements on interoperability and security. More speculative options include algorithmic coordination layers that supplement human councils, or dynamic regulatory sandboxes that allow experimentation across national and institutional boundaries. Briefly outlining these models can help analysts consider actionable frameworks for ensuring effective coordination in this complex environment. At the broadest level are the individual participants in the web. Related participants could coordinate through sectoral, industrial, national, or regional bodies, which would select or appoint representatives to carry their needs, constraints, and concerns to the next level. Those representatives could then participate in broader cross-sector coordinating bodies, where issues affecting multiple parts of the web are reconciled. Information, needs, and problems would move upward through these representative layers, while decisions, standards, priorities, and coordinated responses would move back down through the network. This would allow a very large decentralized system to coordinate without requiring every participant to have a seat at the highest decision-making table.

​Energy says: “We’re approaching capacity.”

​AI-tech says: “We need another 20 GW.”

Mining says: “We can’t supply those materials on that schedule.”

​Finance says: “We can finance expansion, but at this cost.”

​Government says: “We can accelerate permitting.”

​Labor says: “You can permit whatever you want; we don’t have enough electricians.”

​Now somebody has to reconcile those constraints. And increasingly, AI itself could become the information-processing layer helping those representatives understand the beast. That’s an interesting recursion: AI creates infrastructure complexity that requires greater coordination, while AI itself becomes one of the tools used to coordinate that complexity. It can model demand, identify bottlenecks, optimize transportation, forecast energy requirements, monitor inventories, identify supply disruptions, model alternatives, and present decision-makers with options. But as AI takes on a more central role in coordination, this introduces a new set of governance challenges. Issues such as transparency of decision processes, accountability for outcomes, and the potential for systemic bias must be actively managed as the system grows in complexity. Embedding ethical guardrails and robust oversight mechanisms will be essential to ensure AI systems used for coordination remain aligned with broader human values and policy objectives. However, humans still decide what tradeoffs they’re willing to make.

​So in drawing the mature scaffolding I have been hypothesizing, I actually give it four layers:

  1. ​Physical layer: Energy, compute, chips, minerals, manufacturing, transportation, communications, space infrastructure.
  2. Connection layer: Standards, contracts, markets, networks, financial mechanisms, trade arrangements, interoperability.
  3. Intelligence layer: AI/AI-tech monitoring the enormous amounts of information flowing through the physical and connection layers, identifying problems and optimizing responses.
  4. Coordination layer: Governments, corporations, institutions, and potentially increasingly formal representative structures making decisions about priorities, conflicts, security, resources, and continuity.

And all four continuously feed one another. Not necessarily a single centralized machine. More like a living infrastructure network that continuously senses, communicates, substitutes, repairs, finances, negotiates, and expands. And that’s why stabilization wouldn’t mean the thing stops moving. A mature version is moving constantly. Its stability would come from its ability to keep functioning while moving.

The trajectory I am watching begins with connection. As connections multiply, they can produce interoperability, and repeated interoperability can create dependency. Dependency then encourages diversification as participants seek alternatives to individual suppliers or nodes. Diversification can produce redundancy, which makes substitution possible when a particular connection fails. Reliable substitution strengthens continuity, while the need to preserve continuity increases pressure for coordination. If those coordinating relationships become persistent and formalized, they begin to become institutionalized. Taken far enough, this progression could eventually produce what I call resilient convergence: a condition in which the larger system remains functional not because every individual connection is permanent, but because the web has developed enough interoperability, redundancy, substitution, and coordination to survive the loss or disruption of particular connections.

I am nowhere near being able to say that entire sequence has occurred. Much of what I am seeing remains considerably earlier. But that is the scaffolding I’m now looking for evidence of. Even so, early signals are visible. For example, the EU’s Gaia-X initiative and similar government-industry cloud projects are already piloting standardized interfaces across independent infrastructure, echoing the kind of ‘handshake’ mechanisms I described. In global supply chains, industry groups governing chip manufacturing and diversified mineral sources are experimenting with automatic substitution protocols and multi-provider contracts to maintain continuity when a single node fails. Likewise, the creation of regional grid coordination centers reflects a shift toward mature, rapid response for shifting energy loads. Though these implementations are partial and not yet fully integrated, they illustrate a tangible move along the path I’ve outlined. ​And the key change in my thinking is that I no longer expect mature convergence to look like everybody becoming one thing. It could look almost exactly opposite: lots of independent things that can no longer function efficiently without continually communicating with, substituting for, supporting, and coordinating with one another. That’s the web. And AI/AI-tech may simultaneously be one of its largest consumers, one of its strongest accelerators, and eventually one of the principal tools used to manage it. That’s why this thing got so much bigger than “they’re building a lot of data centers.”

Devotions, Teen Devotions

👧👦 Teen Devotional — Day 214

Rooted & Raised

Love Defined by Jesus

📖 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
—John 15:12 (NKJV)

The word love is used constantly. People use it for emotions, attraction, approval, loyalty, acceptance, and even simple preferences. Because the word can mean so many different things in everyday conversation, it is easy to allow the culture around us to define love for us.

Jesus does not leave that definition open.

He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Christ Himself becomes the standard.

That immediately makes biblical love much deeper than emotion. Jesus loved His disciples patiently when they misunderstood Him. He served them when they argued about greatness. He corrected them when they were wrong. He taught them truth they did not always understand or want to hear. And on the night He spoke these words, He was preparing to demonstrate the greatest expression of His love at the cross.

The next verse explains it: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Christlike love gives itself for the good of another.

That can look very different from what people sometimes call love. You may hear that loving someone means always affirming their decisions, never disagreeing with them, or helping them feel comfortable with whatever they choose. But Jesus never separated love from truth.

He could show compassion without approving sin. He could welcome sinners while calling them to repentance. He could correct His disciples sharply and still love them completely.

So sometimes loving another person means encouraging them. Sometimes it means listening. Sometimes it means forgiving. Sometimes it means giving your time, possessions, or attention when you would rather keep them for yourself.

And sometimes love means saying no.

If a friend asks you to lie for them, helping them is not love. If someone wants you to participate in something God calls sin, joining them is not loyalty. If someone you care about is heading toward something destructive, silence may feel easier, but truth spoken with humility may be the more loving response.

Christ determines what love is—not our emotions and not the expectations of the people around us.

That also means biblical love can be costly.

You may love someone who does not love you back. You may forgive someone who never appreciates what forgiveness cost you. You may serve without receiving recognition. You may speak truth and lose someone’s approval because of it.

The earliest Christians experienced this tension in very real ways. They lived among neighbors and relatives they genuinely loved, yet following Christ meant they could no longer participate in everything their communities considered normal. They could care for people, serve them, pray for them, and even suffer for their good without surrendering obedience to Christ.

Their love did not require compromise.

Neither does yours.

But there is another danger. We can defend “truth” while becoming harsh, proud, or unkind. Jesus gives us no permission for that either. If truth becomes an excuse to humiliate someone, win an argument, or display superiority, we are no longer loving as Christ loved.

Truth and love belong together because both are perfectly present in Him.

This is why Jesus’ command cannot be fulfilled merely by trying harder to become a nicer person. He had already told His disciples, “Abide in Me” (John 15:4, NKJV). Christlike love grows from a life remaining in Christ.

Knowing Jesus changes the question from “What does everyone else call loving?” to “How has Christ loved me, and how would obedience to Him teach me to love this person?”

Sometimes the answer will require tenderness.

Sometimes courage.

Sometimes sacrifice.

Always truth.

Jesus does not merely command you to love. He shows you what love is.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach me to love according to Your example rather than the definitions around me. Keep me from confusing love with approval of everything someone does, and keep me from using truth as an excuse for harshness or pride. Give me courage to speak truth when necessary, humility to listen, grace to forgive, and willingness to sacrifice for the good of others. As I abide in You, make Your love increasingly visible through my life. Amen.

Children's Devotionals, Devotions

🧒 Children’s Devotional — Day 214

Rooted & Raised

Jesus Teaches Me to Love Others

📖 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
—John 15:12 (NKJV)

Jesus told His disciples to love one another, but He did not leave them wondering what that love should look like. He said, “as I have loved you.” Jesus Himself is our example.

How did Jesus love His disciples? He was patient with them when they did not understand. He taught them the truth. He served them. He forgave them. He cared for them. And He was preparing to show the greatest love of all by giving His life on the cross.

Jesus teaches us that love is more than saying, “I love you.” Love shows up in what we do.

You show love when you share with your brother or sister instead of always wanting things for yourself. You show love when you include someone who feels left out. You show love when you tell the truth, even when telling a lie might be easier. You show love when you forgive someone who has hurt you.

Sometimes loving someone means doing something you would rather not do. Maybe you want the last cookie, but you give it to someone else. Maybe you want to keep playing, but someone needs your help. Love teaches us not to think only about ourselves.

But loving others does not mean agreeing with everything they do. Jesus always loved people, but He never called wrong things right. Sometimes love means kindly telling the truth or refusing to join someone in doing something God says is wrong.

Jesus had just told His disciples to abide in Him. That is important because we need Him to teach us how to love. When we stay close to Jesus, listen to His Word, and obey Him, He changes the way we treat people.

And you do not have to wait until you are older to begin.

Today, look for one person you can encourage, help, forgive, or serve.

Knowing Jesus teaches us how to love because He first shows us what love looks like.

Love does not only ask, “What do I want?”

Love also asks, “How can I care for someone else?”

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank You for showing me what love looks like. Help me love others the way You teach me to love. Teach me to be patient, kind, truthful, forgiving, and willing to help. When I want to think only about myself, remind me of how You loved others. Let Your love be seen in the way I treat people today. Amen.

Devotions, Family Devotionals

🏡 Family Devotional — Day 214

Rooted & Raised

Learning to Love Like Jesus at Home

📖 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
—John 15:12 (NKJV)

Jesus did not leave His disciples to decide for themselves what love should mean. He gave them a standard: “as I have loved you.” If our families want to learn how to love one another, therefore, we begin by looking at Christ.

That matters because family members often say, “I love you,” while still learning how to love one another well.

Jesus showed His disciples that love is more than affection. He patiently taught them when they did not understand. He corrected them when they were wrong. He served them by washing their feet. He forgave their failures. And shortly after giving this command, He would lay down His life.

Jesus explained, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Christlike love puts another person’s good ahead of selfishness.

That becomes very practical inside a home.

A brother may want to keep playing, but his sister needs help. A parent may be tired, but a child needs to talk. Someone may have eaten the last of something without thinking about anyone else. Another family member may be frustrated and tempted to answer harshly.

These ordinary moments reveal whether love is merely something we say or something we practice.

But loving one another does not mean everyone always gets what they want.

Sometimes parents must say no because something is unwise or wrong. Sometimes children must tell the truth even when a brother or sister wants them to hide wrongdoing. Sometimes family members must correct one another. Biblical love does not protect sin from being exposed; it seeks what is genuinely good according to God’s Word.

At the same time, truth must never become permission for cruelty.”

“I was only telling the truth” does not excuse humiliating someone, speaking harshly, or deliberately causing pain. Jesus was always truthful, yet He was never sinful in the way He used truth.

Families need both.

Truth without love can become harsh.

What people call love without truth can become compromise.

Christ shows us something better: love governed by truth.

Parents especially have an opportunity to model this. Correction should not come from uncontrolled anger or a desire to dominate. Discipline and instruction should seek the child’s good under God’s authority. And when parents themselves sin, love and truth require them to admit it rather than hiding behind their position.

Children can learn the same pattern. Loving your parents does not merely mean saying affectionate things. It includes obedience. Loving brothers and sisters includes sharing, forgiving, speaking truthfully, and refusing to repay wrong with wrong.

The earliest Christian households had to learn to live this way within cultures that often defined family obligations differently from Christ. Their allegiance to Jesus changed how husbands, wives, parents, children, servants, widows, strangers, and fellow believers were treated. Following Christ entered the ordinary relationships of the home.

It still does.

A Christ-centered family will not be a family without disagreements, failures, or hurt feelings. It will be a family continually returning to the One who defines love.

Jesus had already told His disciples, “Abide in Me” (John 15:4, NKJV). We cannot produce His kind of love merely by agreeing to be nicer to one another. We need Christ.

Knowing Him as a family means learning to ask something deeper than, “How do I get my way?”

We learn to ask, “How can I love this person in a way that obeys Christ and genuinely seeks his or her good?”

When that question begins shaping a home, love becomes more than something the family talks about.

It becomes something the family lives.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach our family to love one another as You have loved us. Keep us from selfishness, people-pleasing, harshness, and compromise. Teach us to serve when service is needed, forgive when we have been wronged, speak truth with grace, and receive correction with humility. Help parents lead in love under Your authority, and help children grow in obedience and care for others. As we abide in You, let Your love become visible in the ordinary life of our home. Amen.

Devotions, Women's Devotionals

🌿 Women’s Devotional — Day 214

Rooted & Raised

Learning Love from Christ

📖 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
—John 15:12 (NKJV)

Jesus does not simply command us to love one another. He gives us the measure of that love: “as I have loved you.” If I want to understand what biblical love looks like, I do not begin with my emotions, other people’s expectations, or the definitions offered by the culture around me. I look at Christ.

That changes everything.

Jesus loved His disciples patiently when they misunderstood Him. He served them when they were concerned about their own greatness. He corrected them when they were wrong. He taught them truth even when it challenged what they believed. He remained faithful when they were weak. And on the night He gave this command, He was preparing to demonstrate the depth of His love by laying down His life.

The next verse makes the connection unmistakable: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Christlike love is willing to give itself for the good of another.

For women, that truth can require careful discernment because sacrificial love can easily be confused with having no boundaries at all. We may believe that loving someone means always saying yes, carrying responsibilities that belong to someone else, remaining available regardless of the cost, or allowing another person’s desires to govern our decisions.

But Jesus never defined love as enabling another person’s selfishness or sin.

He served willingly, yet He did not let people’s demands determine His obedience to the Father. Crowds searched for Him, but He withdrew to pray. People wanted Him to act according to their timetable, but He remained governed by the Father’s will. He showed compassion without surrendering truth.

That means saying no can sometimes be an expression of love.

If someone asks me to participate in wrongdoing, love says no. If continually rescuing someone prevents that person from taking responsibility for choices she must make, love may require me to step back. If another person expects something from me that would require disobedience to God, loving that person never requires disobeying Christ.

Yet the opposite danger exists.

Boundaries can become an excuse for selfishness. “Protecting my peace” can become a convenient way to avoid sacrificial love, difficult conversations, forgiveness, or responsibilities God has actually given me. Scripture does not permit me to rename self-centeredness as wisdom simply because the language sounds healthy.

Again, Christ must remain the standard.

Sometimes His love serves.

Sometimes His love confronts.

Sometimes His love waits.

Sometimes His love gives.

Sometimes His love refuses.

But His love is always governed by truth and seeks what is genuinely good.

The women among the earliest Christians had to learn this in very practical circumstances. Following Christ could reshape household relationships, friendships, social expectations, and community obligations. They were called to love people who did not always understand their allegiance to Jesus. They could serve neighbors, care for the suffering, practice hospitality, and honor others without joining practices that violated their obedience to Christ.

They learned that love and faithfulness were not enemies.

We need that same discernment.

Jesus had already told His disciples, “Abide in Me” (John 15:4, NKJV). That is where this kind of love begins. I cannot manufacture Christlike love simply by deciding to become more generous or patient. I need His Word to shape my understanding, His Spirit to produce His fruit in me, and my will to be continually surrendered to His authority.

Knowing Christ changes the question I ask in difficult relationships.

Instead of simply asking, “What will keep this person happy with me?” or even “What will make me most comfortable?” I can ask, “What does faithful love require according to Christ?”

Sometimes that answer will cost me.

Real love always costs Him.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach me to love as You have loved me. Keep me from confusing love with people-pleasing, enabling, or compromise, and keep me from using boundaries or truth to excuse selfishness and hardness of heart. Give me wisdom to know when love should serve, speak, wait, give, forgive, or say no. Let Your Word—not my emotions, fear, or desire for approval—define how I love. As I abide in You, make Your sacrificial, truthful, and gracious love increasingly visible through my life. Amen.

Devotions, Family Devotionals

🏡 Family Devotional — Day 213

Rooted & Raised

Fruit That Outlives Us

📖 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
—John 15:16a (NKJV)

Jesus spoke these words to the disciples He had chosen and appointed. They had followed Him, listened to His teaching, watched His works, and learned from Him. Soon they would carry the testimony of Christ into the world. Jesus wanted their lives to produce something lasting—fruit that would remain.

Families spend a great deal of time building things that will not last forever. We earn money, maintain homes, prepare meals, complete schoolwork, repair things that break, plan for the future, and handle countless daily responsibilities. These things matter, but eventually another generation will live in our homes, use different possessions, work different jobs, and face different problems.

So what can a family pass forward that truly lasts?

God’s truth can.

Faithfulness can.

The testimony of Christ can.

A child may someday forget what kind of car the family owned or what was served for dinner on an ordinary Tuesday night. But she may remember hearing her mother pray when the family did not know what to do. A son may forget many childhood conversations but remember watching his father admit when he was wrong and ask forgiveness.

Children may remember seeing parents open Scripture when decisions had to be made. They may remember the family helping someone who could not repay them. They may remember hearing the gospel spoken naturally in the home, not only at church.

Those ordinary moments can bear lasting fruit.

Jesus had already told His disciples, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5, NKJV). Therefore, a family does not produce spiritual fruit merely by creating more religious activities. Fruit grows as individual members of the household remain in Christ, and His Word increasingly governs the life they share.

That also means parents cannot manufacture faith in their children.

Parents can teach Scripture, model obedience, correct wrongdoing, pray, answer questions, share the gospel, and create a home where Christ is honored. Those responsibilities matter enormously. But each child must personally respond to Christ. Changing a heart belongs to God.

This keeps Christian parenting from becoming an attempt to control outcomes.

Faithful parents plant. They water. They teach. They pray. They live what they teach. And they entrust the results to God.

The earliest Christian families lived this way long before anyone knew what effect their faithfulness would have on later generations. They gathered with other believers, learned the apostles’ teaching, practiced hospitality, cared for those in need, and taught their children within a world filled with idolatry. Many of their names disappeared from history.

Their influence did not.

Generation after generation heard the gospel because someone before them remained faithful.

Your family occupies one small place in that same continuing story. You may never know how far the influence of one faithful household will travel. A child you teach today may someday teach another. Someone welcomed into your home may remember the love of Christ they encountered there. A Scripture memorized together may return to someone’s mind decades later during a difficult night.

The family may never see all the fruit.

That is all right.

Jesus did not say you must see everything your faithfulness produces. He said the fruit should remain.

Knowing Christ as a family changes what we hope to leave behind. The greatest inheritance is not merely property, possessions, education, or financial security, valuable as those things may be.

The greatest thing one generation can place before the next is the truth about Jesus Christ, faithfully taught and faithfully lived.

One day our homes and possessions will belong to someone else.

May the testimony of Christ continue long after we are gone.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach our family to abide in You and bear fruit that remains. Help us remember that what we possess is temporary, but Your truth endures. Give parents wisdom to teach and faithfully model Your Word without trying to control what only You can do in another heart. Help children learn to know, trust, and follow You for themselves. Use the ordinary faithfulness of our home in ways we may never see, and let the testimony of Christ pass faithfully from one generation to the next. Amen.

Devotions, Women's Devotionals

🌿 Women’s Devotional — Day 213

Rooted & Raised

A Life That Bears Lasting Fruit

📖 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
—John 15:16a (NKJV)

Jesus spoke these words to the disciples He had personally chosen and appointed. They had been called to follow Him, taught by Him, and prepared to carry His testimony into the world. Now, on the evening before the cross, He reminded them that their lives had a purpose beyond themselves: they were to go and bear fruit that would remain.

There is something deeply clarifying about that.

So much of life can be spent on things that must eventually be left behind. We maintain homes, earn money, complete projects, meet deadlines, build careers, care for possessions, and manage countless responsibilities. Many of these things are necessary and good. Yet none of them is permanent.

Jesus directs our attention toward fruit that remains.

That does not mean we must abandon ordinary responsibilities in search of something that appears more spiritual. Scripture never divides faithfulness that way. The question is whether Christ is governing the ordinary things we have already been given.

A woman may bear fruit while raising children, working in an office, caring for aging parents, studying, serving neighbors, managing a household, building a business, or walking through a season nobody else sees. The location does not make the fruit spiritual. What matters is whether life abides in Christ and is lived in obedience to Him.

Jesus had already established this clearly: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5, NKJV).

So His command to bear fruit is not an invitation to frantic productivity.

That distinction matters, especially for women who are accustomed to carrying responsibilities. It is possible to become extremely productive while becoming spiritually exhausted. We can begin measuring a good day by how much we completed, how many people we helped, how well we managed everyone’s needs, or whether everything went according to plan.

But productivity and fruitfulness are not the same thing.

I can complete an entire list while walking in impatience, self-reliance, resentment, or pride. I can also accomplish something seemingly small in obedience to Christ that bears fruit far beyond what I can presently see.

A conversation in which I speak truth with grace may remain in someone’s memory for years. A prayer offered faithfully for another person may participate in something God does long after I have forgotten praying it. Scripture taught carefully to a child may be remembered decades later. A refusal to compromise may strengthen someone watching quietly. An act of generosity may become part of another person’s testimony of God’s provision.

We rarely know how far obedience travels.

The earliest Christian women could not have known either. Many lived ordinary lives whose names were never preserved. They opened homes, discipled younger believers, raised children in the faith, cared for the poor, served fellow Christians, endured hardship, and remained faithful to Christ within communities shaped by very different values.

Most never knew that believers nearly two thousand years later would look back and recognize the fruit of those early Christian households and communities.

They simply lived faithfully in their generation.

That releases us from needing to manufacture significance.

Jesus did not tell His disciples to become impressive. He appointed them to bear fruit. And the fruit came as they remained in Him.

Perhaps that is the better question to bring before the Lord today—not, Am I accomplishing enough? But, Is my life abiding in Christ, and is what I am doing flowing from obedience to Him?

Some fruit becomes visible quickly. Some may not become visible during our lifetime. The results belong to God.

Faithfulness belongs to us.

Knowing Christ changes the way I measure a meaningful life. I do not need everything I do to be remembered.

I want what Christ produces through my obedience to remain.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach me to measure my life by faithfulness rather than recognition or productivity. Keep me abiding in You so that what grows from my life comes from Your work rather than my striving. Take the ordinary responsibilities, relationships, opportunities, and gifts You have entrusted to me and use them for Your purposes. Whether I ever see the results or not, help me remain faithful. Produce through my life fruit that glorifies the Father and remains. Amen.

Devotions, Teen Devotions

👧👦 Teen Devotional — Day 213

Rooted & Raised

Chosen and Appointed to Bear Fruit

📖 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
—John 15:16a (NKJV)

Jesus spoke these words directly to the disciples He had chosen and appointed. They had not assembled themselves and then invited Jesus to lead them. He had called them to follow Him, taught them, prepared them, and was now sending them forward with a purpose: they were to go and bear lasting fruit.

That purpose matters when you begin asking, What am I supposed to do with my life?

As a teenager, that question can become enormous. What will you study? What kind of work will you do? Where will you live? What gifts do you have? What if you choose the wrong direction? Those are legitimate questions, but Scripture begins somewhere deeper than career, education, or personal achievement.

Before asking what you will accomplish, ask whom you belong to.

Jesus had already told His disciples, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5, NKJV). So when He appoints them to bear fruit in verse 16, He is not suddenly telling them to become spiritually productive through their own ability. Their fruitfulness still depends upon remaining in Him.

That keeps purpose from becoming performance.

You do not need to build an impressive life for God to consider you useful. Your calling is to remain faithful to Christ and obey what He has placed before you. The fruit grows from that relationship.

Sometimes that fruit will appear very ordinary. You refuse to cheat when nobody would discover it. You forgive someone who hurt you. You tell the truth when lying would protect your reputation. You help someone without posting about it. You refuse to join friends in something you know dishonors God. You speak about Christ when an opportunity arises.

None of those things may feel extraordinary, but faithfulness does not need an audience to matter.

Jesus also said that the fruit should “remain.” Much of what people your age are encouraged to pursue is temporary—attention, popularity, appearance, possessions, achievements, online recognition. None of those things can carry eternal weight simply because people admire them.

A life invested in obedience to Christ can.

The disciples standing before Jesus that evening could not have imagined everything that would follow. They would proclaim the gospel, establish believers in the truth, endure opposition, and carry Christ’s message far beyond the places they had known. Their faithfulness would affect people they would never meet.

The generations immediately after them show us something similar. Many early Christians whose names history never recorded lived faithfully in homes, marketplaces, workshops, and communities. They taught their children, cared for fellow believers, welcomed strangers, shared what they possessed, refused idolatry, and spoke of Christ. Most never became famous.

Their fruit still mattered.

That is worth remembering in a world that constantly measures significance by visibility. God does not need you to become famous before your life can matter for His kingdom.

He calls you to faithfulness.

Your future education can become part of that faithfulness. Your work can become part of it. Your friendships, abilities, opportunities, possessions, and time can all be placed under Christ’s authority. The question is not merely, What do I want to become? but, How can the life Christ has given me bear fruit that honors Him?

Knowing Christ gives purpose a different center. Your life is no longer primarily a project for building your own name. It becomes something entrusted to you for God’s glory.

You may not yet know exactly where your life will take you.

You do know what Christ desires along the way: abide in Him, obey Him, and bear fruit that remains.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving purpose to the lives of those who follow You. Keep me from measuring my worth by popularity, achievement, or recognition. Teach me to abide in You and be faithful in what You place before me today. Guide my future according to Your wisdom, and use my education, relationships, abilities, work, and opportunities for Your purposes. Produce fruit in my life that honors the Father and remains long after temporary things have passed away. Amen.

Children's Devotionals, Devotions

🧒 Children’s Devotional — Day 213

Rooted & Raised

Jesus Chose Me to Bear Fruit

📖 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”
—John 15:16a (NKJV)

Jesus spoke to His disciples and told them something very important. He had chosen and appointed them to go and bear fruit. Their lives were supposed to show that they belonged to Him.

What kind of fruit was Jesus talking about? He was not talking about apples, oranges, or grapes! He was talking about the good things that grow from a life that follows Him.

When you love others, obey God, tell the truth, forgive, show kindness, and serve someone who needs help, your life begins to show what it looks like to follow Jesus. Jesus wants His followers to live in ways that honor God.

But remember what Jesus had just taught about the vine and branches. A branch cannot produce fruit by itself. Jesus said, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5, NKJV). We need Him.

That means bearing fruit is not about trying to impress Jesus by showing Him how good you can be. We remain close to Him, listen to His Word, obey what He says, and depend upon Him. He changes us as we follow Him.

Jesus also said the fruit should “remain” (John 15:16, NKJV). He wants our lives to have a lasting impact for His kingdom. A kind word, an act of obedience, telling someone about Jesus, or faithfully praying for another person may seem small, but God can use our obedience in ways we may never see.

You do not have to be grown up before God can use your life. Jesus called children to come to Him, and you can begin following Him faithfully right now.

Knowing Jesus changes the way you live.

Stay close to Him, obey His Word, and let your life show that you belong to Him.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank You for calling Your followers to bear fruit for You. Help me stay close to You and obey Your Word. Teach me to love others, speak truth, forgive, serve, and do what pleases You. Use even the small things I do in obedience to You, and let my life show others that I belong to You. Amen.

Faith Worthy of the Kingdom, Kingdom Discipleship

Faithfulness in the Waiting: Keeping Our Lamps Burning

Rooted & Raised

From the Series: Ordinary Saints: Lessons from the Ante-Nicene Church

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Waiting is easy when you know exactly when someone will arrive. You straighten the room, finish what needs to be done, and glance at the clock. If they are expected at seven, you know when to be ready. But sometimes waiting does not come with a set time. We might wait for a loved one’s safe return on a long drive, for a medical result to arrive, or for important news that could change our plans. In those moments, time stretches, and uncertainty can grow. Not knowing when something will happen shapes the way we wait, often requiring more patience and preparation. Jesus used the familiar setting of a wedding to teach His disciples something important about His return. Ten virgins took their lamps and went out to meet the Bridegroom. Five were wise and brought additional oil with them. Five were foolish and did not. Then something happened that is easy to overlook. The Bridegroom was delayed.

Jesus tells us, “But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). All ten slept. The difference between the wise and foolish virgins, therefore, was not that five physically remained awake while the others became drowsy. The difference was that five had prepared beforehand for the Bridegroom’s arrival, even if the waiting lasted longer than expected. Then, suddenly, the waiting ended. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'” (Matthew 25:6). Everyone rose. Everyone trimmed her lamp. But not everyone was ready. The foolish virgins discovered too late that their lamps were going out. While they went away to obtain what they lacked, the Bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready entered the wedding with him, “and the door was shut” (Matthew 25:10).

Jesus does not leave His disciples to guess at the central lesson of the parable. He tells them: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13). Watchfulness, then, is not frantic speculation about when Christ will return. It is readiness for His return whenever He comes. That distinction matters.

Christians can become so occupied with identifying signs, constructing timelines, and discussing prophetic events that watchfulness itself becomes confused with prediction. Yet Jesus repeatedly turned His disciples’ attention away from calculating the unknown and toward faithfulness in the present. The question is not merely, When will the Bridegroom come? The more searching question is, Will I be found ready when He does? The Christians of the Ante-Nicene era lived with that question close at hand.

Imagine hearing Matthew’s Gospel read aloud among believers sometime during the second century. You know Christ has promised to return, but generations have now passed since His ascension. Some believers have suffered persecution. Others have died awaiting His appearing. Rome still stands. Life continues. The Bridegroom appears to be delayed. Those circumstances made Jesus’ parable particularly meaningful. The challenge was not merely remaining faithful for a dramatic moment. It was remaining faithful through ordinary days that became years, and years that became generations.

Early Christian writings repeatedly encouraged believers toward perseverance, holiness, and readiness. They warned against allowing the apparent delay of Christ’s return to produce spiritual carelessness. That danger remains remarkably familiar. Most spiritual drifting does not happen in a single dramatic decision. It happens gradually. Prayer becomes less important. Scripture becomes easier to neglect. A compromise that once troubled the conscience becomes comfortable. Love for Christ competes with countless distractions. We still profess the same faith, but somewhere along the way our attention begins to settle more firmly on this present world. This is why biblical watchfulness reaches much deeper than simply knowing prophecy. It shapes the way we live.

To guard against such drifting and remain watchful, we can anchor ourselves in simple daily practices. Setting aside time each day for prayer and reading Scripture keeps our hearts attentive to God’s voice. Choosing regular acts of service, whether at home, at work, or in our community, helps us stay engaged in loving others for Christ’s sake. Practicing gratitude, confessing sin promptly, encouraging fellow believers, and keeping Sabbath rest are all habits that remind us of what matters most. These ordinary disciplines, consistently practiced, help us stay watchful and keep our lamps lit, even when the waiting feels long or routine.

Jesus told His disciples elsewhere, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master” (Luke 12:35–36). Peter likewise connected anticipation of the Lord’s coming with the character of God’s people, asking, “what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). John makes the relationship even more personal. Speaking of Christ’s appearing, he writes that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Holiness does not purchase our entrance into the Kingdom. Christ alone saves us. Nor do we make ourselves ready through anxious religious striving. Rather, the hope of seeing Christ increasingly shapes those who belong to Him. Because we love Him, we want to please Him. Because He has forgiven us, we turn from sin. Because He is coming, we want to be faithful with what He has entrusted to us. That readiness often develops in places no one notices. It is found in the believer who confesses sin instead of concealing it. In the Christian who continues praying when prayer feels ordinary. In the employee who refuses dishonesty even when compromise would be profitable. In the believer who forgives rather than nurturing resentment. In the weary saint who continues serving Christ after decades of waiting. These may not look like dramatic acts of preparation for the return of a King. Yet each quiet, unseen act of obedience is precious in the sight of God. He delights in the small and hidden faithfulness of His people. Your ordinary, daily efforts to follow Christ matter deeply to Him. These simple moments—often overlooked by others—are the true substance of a faithful life.

Perhaps this is one of the lessons the early Church can offer us. Many of those believers did not live to see Christ return. Neither did the apostles. Yet their waiting was not wasted. They worshiped. They served. They proclaimed the gospel. They raised children in the faith. They cared for the suffering. They endured persecution. And eventually, one generation entrusted the faith to another. The Bridegroom’s apparent delay did not make His promise less certain. Neither does it today.

Nearly two thousand years have passed since Jesus told His disciples to watch. That long span of time can tempt us toward one of two extremes: obsession with predicting His return or practical forgetfulness that He is returning at all. Jesus calls us to neither. He calls us to readiness. But what does readiness look like? Being ready for Christ’s return means living each day in faith, obedience, and love. It means keeping close to Him through prayer and Scripture, seeking to leave nothing unreconciled in our relationships, turning from sin when we recognize it, serving others wherever we have opportunity, and entrusting every hope and fear to God. Readiness is not measured by a perfect record or endless activity, but by a heart that stays open to Christ and a life pointed toward Him. There is something wonderfully peaceful about that kind of watchfulness. The believer does not need to awaken every morning wondering whether today’s headlines have finally unlocked the prophetic calendar. Neither should we live as though this present world will continue forever. We remain faithful to our Lord today. And tomorrow, if He has not yet come, we remain faithful again. One day the waiting will end. Growing in holiness.

The cry that Jesus described in His parable will no longer belong to a story: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Until then, we keep our lamps lit—not by trying to decipher what Jesus has not revealed, but by faithfully living according to what He has. Watch, serve, encourage one another, and wait with hope for the Bridegroom who has promised to return.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, keep my heart watchful while I wait for You. Guard me from both distraction and speculation, and teach me to live faithfully in what You have already revealed. Through Your Word and Your Spirit, continue to sanctify me, strengthen me when the waiting feels long, and help me encourage others to remain faithful. May I be found serving You when You come. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.